The Last Superhero (39 page)

Touch my face. I think I
broke my nose.

“
Yeah.
Are you an elf?”

He rolls his eyes. “There's
no time for that. Why haven't you morphed?”

I'm not given time to answer
as Suárez shouts, “We have to get out of here!”

Check on the kid, but he's
already astride the lion, running away from the scene, and Daphne's
offering me her wide, strong back and I don't think about it because
another ripple is coming at us, fast.

Another roar envelops us and
it's a dragon descending from the skies and picking Ross and Suárez
up.

Wyatt's hanging on behind me
as we try to escape.

This is getting hard to
process.

Powell takes off running and
we're right behind him, trying for the ground not to catapult us to
oblivion.

Yet all I can think of is if
Daphne will kill me for pulling her hair too hard.

As if he were a feather,
Powell jumps all of a sudden, doing a 180-degree turn in the air to
shoot something or someone behind us. Salvatore Jr. on a motorcycle.

Classy.

The dragon roars again as
Suárez jumps off it, using its tail as a trampoline to propel
himself upwards and forwards to land on nightmare Salvatore Jr.

This is so confusing.
Everyone's got superpowers but me.

I did the levitation thing
back there though.

The motorcycle zigzags but
doesn't topple as Suárez tries to dismount Salvatore Jr. from
it, but the latter's too strong and soon sends him flying through the
air.

Powell keeps shooting at him
and his shots keep being deflected.

Ross's shooting arrows and
so is Wyatt and I'm holding onto Daphne like an idiot.

Glance forward and the kid's
staring at me. His eyes clearly asking what the fuck am I waiting
for.

I've got to do something.
Quick. Close your eyes. Onna-bugeisha. Onna-fucking-bugeisha!

Open your eyes and feel the
hard leather of an armor on you.

Yeah.

Helmet. Naginata.

Wyatt notices and goes,
“Whoa!”

Let's do this.

I stand on Daphne like
Suárez did and jump off.

But before my feet hit the
floor we are all hurled against a brick wall that has appeared out of
nowhere.

The feeling of having every
bone in your body crushed is something I hope never to experience
again.

“
Fuck,”
I breathe as I try to stand on quivering feet.

Everyone's moaning and
groaning and when I glance to the side the lion's no more. It has now
taken the figure of a man doubled over in pain.

“
Dad?”
What the fuck? “Dad!” Help him up, make sure he's okay.

Hear laughter and not from a
child this time.

Salvatore Jr. is eying us
from a distance, his hands coming up for a slow clap. “You're
truly a colorful bunch.”

“
Fuck
you,” I spit, only managing to amuse him.

“
And
what are you going to do about it?”

Oh, you're asking for a
spanking!

Dad's able to stand on his
own and thank god he does because I'm about to skewer this
motherfucker up.

Grab Ross's shoulder to help
me gain altitude when I jump, naginata stretched out in a rush of
anger, but I'm swiftly pushed to the side by his power.

Background music: his
laughter.

He outstretches a hand and
everyone else is glued to the wall; even the dragon cries this time.

“
Pathetic,”
he murmurs as he concentrates his efforts on making my companions
squeal in pain.

Powell's armor suit starts
to crack.

Get up! Get up and fight!
It's a nightmare, it's all in your head, you can do this!

Push. Push so hard you're
able to stop his force against you.

Look at the wall behind you
and run up it, flip backwards, swing the naginata and cut him across
the back.

He cries out in pain, his
knees giving under his weight.

My companions fall to the
ground again.

I land on my feet and
approach him, ready to go for the grab, to burn the hell out of him
while he's down.

Only to see the slash close
on itself, him standing up, and his black eyes sneering at me through
the purple mask.

Shit.

Daphne's the first one to
pounce on him, her claws ripping the concrete floor as she uses her
whole body to send him to the ground.

Suárez stands to my
right, his sword aiming at the crouched man.

Ross reaches up with his
bow, summoning the dark clouds that are now circling above us.

A soft, low roar makes it to
my ears and I see Dad's back into lion form, stepping towards
Salvatore Jr. with calculated steps.

Everyone's breathing hard as
Dad uses one of his claws to poke the unmoving Salvatore Jr. and a
coldness overtakes me at the thought: Is he dead?

Have I killed him? Dr.
Morgan said...

A push of a paw and
Salvatore Jr. rolls to his side, revealing something hidden under
him.

The boy. In fetal position,
trembling with fear.

We're frozen at the sight
and even Dad's standing there a pace away without knowing what to do.

Ross is waiting, an arrow
loaded on his bow, the storm he's conjured hovering above us.

I have no idea what he's
thinking, but I nod at him to go ahead and do it.

He points at me, mouthing
something I can't understand.

“
What?”
I whisper.

“
Raise
your sword.”

“
What?”

“
Raise
your sword!” he repeats, a bit louder now.

“
It's
a naginata.”

“
Whatever
it is. Raise it!” he shouts and I do as he says.

In the blink of an eye, he
shoots an arrow at the skies that triggers a lightning to enter
through the blade of my weapon, loading it with energy that I then
channel towards Salvatore Jr. Dad's quick to pull the child to safety
as I strike my target right in the middle of his chest.

The light engulfs him for a
moment, his whole body brightened by the currents of lights that, as
quick as they appeared, fade away.

Silence.

We exchange questioning
glances.

He stirs and, in a quick
movement, leaps to his feet, extending both his arms. One aiming at
the child standing beside the lion, the other at me, using the same
electricity I hit him with to hit us both straight in the abdomen.

I fall on my back. Devoid of
oxygen, choking on something I can't get off me.

Then it all dissolves and
we're back in the bunker and the lights hurt my eyes and everyone's
rushing around.

“
Giana,
baby...” Dad's eyes are the first I see before he turns me to
the side so I can puke the blood that threatens to come up my nose.

I let some out as not to
drown on it, but what I really want to do is check the glass
enclosure.

Blurry eyes don't let me
focus. I push with all my might and see Steven's fallen from the
stretcher and he's knelt by its side, staring at me, ire in his eyes.

42

The 'I told yous' are thrown
back and forth like daggers ripping through the air around us.

Steven's seeing red while
all I see are tears.

I'm crying out of sadness.
I'm crying out of anger.

I'm crying out of the
knowledge that I fucked up and now he's not even sending glances my
way.

Dad had run back to where we
were after noticing I wasn't with them. That's how he entered the
nightmare and having listened to us talking about how to work our way
inside them, he knew what he had to do.

Then Dr. Hudson activated an
emergency adrenaline shot for which they had set a switch some feet
away from where Steven was kept in case of a situation like the one
we caused came up. Nevertheless, he'd already inflicted some damage
on us. Mostly me, you know, because he's got this thing about trying
to kill me every fucking time.

Now, after we've been tended
to by the staff and checked for life-threatening injuries, we've been
given some alone time in the tiny interrogation room to say what we
have to say to each other... and all I want to do is crawl into a
corner and die.

“
I
thought I was clear about not wanting to put any of you in danger,”
he says with his back to me, standing a few steps away from the chair
I'm sitting in.

“
But
we're willing,” I can barely speak through the sniffles and the
whimpering. “I've told you time and again that we all want to
help you.”

He lets out a heavy sigh. So
heavy you'd think he's carrying the weight of the world on his
shoulders.

“
I
don't care how much any of you want to
help
me, it'll do no good if you lose your lives trying. I'm not worth
it.”

“
Don't
you say that!” I leap to my feet, try to close the distance.
“Steven, come on! That was a failed attempt, but I know we can
do it!”

He turns to me and I can
finally look him in the eye. Try to peer into his heart.

“
A
failed attempt in which I injured all of you and...” he brings
a hand up instinctively and quickly pulls back.

I grab it and press it
against my aching chest. “This is where you belong and he knows
it, nightmare Salvatore Jr. knows it.”

“
And
it's why he'll kill you. In the end, you will end up dead and what
will I have left then? The memory of having killed the thing I love
the most? To have murdered you?” He retrieves the hand. “All
this time I've tortured myself over Genevieve's death and the only
thing I have to console myself is the fact that I didn't know I was
hurting her. But you? You I
know
I'm hurting and I won't be able to live with that kind of guilt.”

“
Your
guilt is already killing you, Steven.”

“
That
is why I don't need to add your death to it. I beg of you.”

“
I'll
go with you. Wherever you want to go. It doesn't matter.”

“
No.”
In a move I wasn't expecting but had hoped would happen, he puts his
arms around me for a hug so tight I can hear his heart beating hard
against me. “You have things you can't walk away from, things
you can't leave behind, while I have nothing to keep me from
disappearing again.”

It pains him. I can tell.
The pain is mutual.

“
What
about me?” I hold onto him. “I love you.” It's
almost a breath yet he catches it.

“
I
will never stop loving you,” he says and it's a stab right
there, where it hurts the most. “I will always love you because
you reminded me of how great it was to feel alive.”

Was.

Who dares say anything after
that?

He releases me and I push
myself up for a kiss that he doesn't want to respond to at first but
ends up giving in.

It tastes like goodbye and I
hate myself for it.

We emerge from that small
office like two tired fighters at the end of a match.